Redditor’s Story Turned Into Short Film Starring H. Jon Benjamin

A little under two years ago, Adam Spielman was browsing Reddit’s Writing Prompts community when he came across one asking, “A man gets to paradise. Unfortunately, Lucifer won the war in heaven ages ago. What is the man’s experience like?” Spielman got to work—and now, his story has since been transformed into a new short film starring some big names.

Aptly titled Limbo, the short stars H. Jon Benjamin (Archer,Bob’s Burgers) as a hapless everyman named Jim and Natasha Leggerro (Another Period) as Lucy—short for Lucifer.

But the real star is Spielman, the writer who developed the plot for this hilarious, absurdist story in a series of Reddit posts almost two years ago.

On January 13, 2014, Spielman—better known as user DrowningDream on Reddit—saw the creative writing challenge from the Writing Prompts community, a group “dedicated to inspiring people to write.” Spielman’s story—serialized in four comments in the original thread—quickly rose to the front page of Reddit, and it’s easy to see why from the opening lines:

“Pizza? I didn’t think there’d be pizza in heaven,” Jim said.

“Why not? Pizza is the shit,” the angel said.

“And cursing. And beer? Is that beer?”

In fact, the table was laid out with all the things Jim loved. Chicken wings, malt whiskey, chilly fries, club sandwiches, those little wieners wrapped in bacon. Over the table hung a cage where two beautiful women danced naked to 90’s alternative. The angel saw him gazing.

“You can have them after dinner,” he said.

Thus, a bewildered Jim enters a comically over-the-top paradise of constant wish fulfillment. At one point, he even “orgasm[s] a slice of apple pie, complete with a fork and a dapple of cream.”

Jim gets his just desserts in Heaven. (Haines Landry/Vimeo)

Eventually (376 years later, to be exact), Jim’s enjoyment gives way to a frustrated quest for a higher purpose that brings him face-to-face with one of heaven’s bureaucrats, tasked with giving unhappy souls “the truth.”

After reading Spielman’s story, many Reddit users wanted to see it adapted for the screen.

As Spielman writes in an update on Reddit, “[It] caught the attention of a couple of independent film makers and the crazy bastards actually made the movie.”

The newly released short film, written and directed by Fangso Liu, is titled Limbo (a word notably absent from Spielman’s story). The original dialogue and physical details are almost entirely intact in Liu’s adaptation—right down to the cherry pie ejaculate.

Benjamin and Leggerro make the perfect Jim and “Lucy” (respectively). The chemistry between the befuddled human and carefree deity is reminiscent of Dudley Moore and Peter Cook in 1967’s Bedazzled.

Natasha Leggerro and H. Jon Benjamin (Haines Landry/Vimeo)

Limbo is a refreshing departure from the heavy-handed pearly gates of other film paradises—daring to supply the afterlife with alcohol, sex, and greasy bar food.

As the angel in Spielman’s story explains, “Everybody gets in, and everybody gets what they desire … If you’re Jim from Tennessee, you get chicken wings and bitches.”

“If you’re Jim from Tennessee, you get chicken wings and bitches.” (Haines Landry/Vimeo)

While the film version does an admirable job of bringing the written story to life, the old maxim about the book being better than the movie may hold true.

Actually, you can judge for yourself—because Spielman has released a novelization of his story, called Book of Jim: Agnostic Parables and Dick Jokes from Lucifer’s Paradise, as a free e-book on Amazon.

Make sure you read it before you watch the short film on Vimeo. Otherwise, you just might go to hell for it.